Five reasons to see KIMSOOJA Unfolding at the Vancouver Art Gallery

SHAWN CONNER, SPECIAL TO THE Sun10.08.2013

A Needle Woman, 1999–2001 (Kimsooja video still), 8-channel video projection, 6:33 loop from the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Goetz Collection, Munich

1. She’s kind of a big deal. The Korean-born, Paris- and New York-based artist first garnered international attention while a resident artist at MoMA PS1 in Long Island in the early ‘80s. Her bottari (Korean for “bundle”) — objects wrapped in colourful Korean textiles — set all the art critics’ tongues a-wagging. Since then Kimsooja’s work has been exhibited all over the world. This year marks the fifth time she is participating in the Venice Biennale, where she’s representing South Korea.

2. KIMSOOJA Unfolding is the first retrospective of her work. Examples of everything from the artist’s early ‘80s textile-based works to large installations, site-specific bottari, and multi-channel video projections are presented together in one career-spanning show.

3. The questions she poses about what VAG director Kathleen S. Bartels refers to as “gender, identity and our relations to the everyday.” Case in point: Needle Woman, a six-minute video in which the artist carries her silhouette through city streets.

4. See the show, buy the book. Co-published by the VAG and Hatje Cantz of Berlin, KIMSOOJA Unfolding features over 100 images of the artist’s work along with essays.

5. Personal exhibition tour. The artist will be on hand to guide a tour of the exhibition along with curator Daina Augaitis Thursday at 6 p.m.

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